With the increase in consumer and environmental awareness, several states have legislated deposit laws to encourage the recycling of soft drink cans. In addition, public environmental concern has led to increasing interest in the area of container recycling. Furthermore, the impact of refuse on our landfill facilities has brought about increased efforts to sort trash and refuse to allow efficient collection of aluminum cans and glass containers for recycling.
The development of aluminum can deposit laws has led the public to save and store empty beverage containers and to be confronted with the problems of inconvenient storage and transport of numbers of cans. Typically, consumers have been carrying the empty can back to retainers or recyclers in various paper and plastic bags, in the paperboard containers in which they were purchased, or on paperboard traps provided by bottlers when the canned soft drinks are shipped from the factory. The usual cardboard tray is sized to receive 24 cans standing upright and is provided with a one- or two-inch upstanding flange surrounding the floor of the tray. Due to the negligible mass of each individual empty aluminum can, empty cans placed on such a tray are subject to easily toppling off the tray or being blown therefrom by a gust of wind.